The goal is for all of them to become one heart and mind—
   Just as you, Father, are in me and I in you,
   So they might be one heart and mind with us. —John 17:20 

“One.”

A BIG request. Larger than life. More difficult than raising one from the dead. Jesus was clearly asking the impossible. Even he stated that a house divided couldn’t stand. Some theologians try to make an intriguing point that this was the only prayer Jesus offered up that wasn’t answered. But what do you expect from theologians…

Now, the Word states that God heard Jesus and that unity is actually available to us. Just look at all the effort Satan pours, quite effectively, into creating division; that is proof of what might be.

So what’s the problem? What keeps the church from being unified? Could it be that the problem lies with our commitment? Jesus said that if anyone wanted to follow him that they needed to pick up their cross and follow him. This requires denial; letting go of YOUR life in order to secure ETERNAL life, trading selfishness for selflishness, converting love of self to the love of community.

Denying one’s self means putting aside that we want to do in exchange for what God wants. More directly, it is a life that is dominated by an attitude, under the Spirit’s power, that is balanced in everything without “me” being the driver. In biblical terms, it is a life guided by the Spirit.

“Picking up your cross and following” is a big order. If we don’t do it, we miss out; if we do, we have a real fight on our hands. Denying ones self and putting yourself in the hands of a majestic Being isn’t something we immediately jump to do.

Picking up the cross implies a metamorphosis, a rebirth, a fundamental change. Death is involved – Paul uses the idea of the old nature dying – and death involves forced change. It is the cross, and what it implies and delivers, that is the death-delivering agent (“if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation,” 2 Cor. 5:17). Encountering the cross creates change; it is the crossroad that represents the end of one life and the beginning of a new one.

Please understand: if you adopt a lifestyle of “dying to self,” you are going to have a problem. But, though it may be painful to you, it will create a miracle… oneness.

Unity is the largest expression of the power of God available. It is capable of destroying the very gates of hell; it can radically change lives; it can transform the earthly into the heavenly.

And how does one access this expression of God’s power? The Gospel. It is the Good News that enables the denial of self, brings about reconciliation and generates unity,

And, “thank you Lord,” it is this power that has arrived in Ubaúna!

…to be continued